Random image

An Afghan schoolgirl serves during a volleyball tournament in Herat province, the first there since the overthrow of the Taleban in 2001. [source]

Rajan : "Some images give you a very positive sense of the world :)"

babjob.com

In India, a businessman looking for a chauffeur might ask his friend, who might ask his chauffeur. Such connections provide a kind of quality control. The friend's chauffeur, for instance, will not recommend a hoodlum, for fear of losing his own job.

To re-create this dynamic online, Babajob pays people to be "connectors" between employer and employee. In the example above, the businessman's friend and his chauffeur would each earn the equivalent of $2.50 if they connected the businessman with someone he liked.

The model is gaining attention, and praise. A Bangalore venture capitalist, when told of Babajob, immediately asked to be put in touch with Mr. Blagsvedt. And Steve Pogorzelski, president of the international division of Monster.com, the American jobs site, said, "Wow" when told of the company. "It is an important innovation because it opens up the marketplace to people of socioeconomic levels who may not have the widest array of jobs available to them."

Evolution of the cortically-challenged

We find it difficult to find other people with similar interests and thoughts. People going through the same educational system, come out of the system with very few points to agree on. This is not agreement about the color of Kajol's eyes. Agreement on how certain things should be in life. How should men treat women ? Can violence be a solution to any problem ? Is abortion ethical ? Do we have a Morality gene ? Why can our brain not evolve a compassionate relationship with chaos, after all thats a higher entropy level with more potential :) ? 

Segue: The upper limit on the number  of opinions in the world is at-least 2 to the power of the number of questions. This is the global meme-pool. Hey, I swear, I am still to get to chapter 11 of the "selfish gene" where Dawkins talks about memes. The theory, that we are all made up of a bunch of memes; each meme being an opinion about any one of the myriad of questions (might include Rani's voice too), sounds so much more easy to understand all of a sudden :) (hahaha imagine if Buddha felt 100 times more bliss than understanding just one concept, wow !!!) 

Segue: This brain is so Goddamn associative. Every freaking time I use the word segue there is an image of Dr.Kim introducing that word to me. Will that ever be over-written ? Like "I" will know if it ever is hehe. I wonder why programming courses Introduce us to ordered arrays first and associative ones in some later chapter. 

So looks like each of us has a unique meme signature. 

Segue: Haha imagine the day when people have their brains scanned to trace their memetic history. Dawkins talks about the genes influencing the survival machines (our Bodies) and the reverse not happening. What if memes were to trick the genes with "survival candy" and open up the abilities of individuals to modify their genetic code during their life time. That way memes can be parasites on the gene-complex. 

The point that got me writing this entry is the thought of "what if people were able to get along better if the meme pool is reduced?". Wouldn't that be a direction genes would want to evolve in. More people thinking alike, causing less violence and thus more chances of survival. Now the genes take over the meme-complex. And then nature will select for the "cortically challenged" i.e. people with less dissonance with the rest of the world. Some of us think its already happening. All this global inter-connectivity might create global stereotypes and minorities might find no safe haven. 

Haha and so ladies and gentlemen the next 100 generations are going to witness the gruesome Meme-Gene war !! 

Hitchens' page

Music and Lyrics

Saw it yest. Drew Barrymore is phenomenal. Hugh Grant has good comic timing.
Such a simple movie but very very well made.

Chindogu

"Japanese society won't just laugh, so inventors are not afraid to try new things," said Takumi Hirai, chairman of Japan's largest association of individual inventors, the 10,000-member Hatsumeigakkai.

In fact, Japan produces so many unusual inventions that it even has a word for them: chindogu, or "queer tools." The term was popularized by Kenji Kawakami, whose hundreds of intentionally impractical and humorous inventions have won him international attention as Japan's answer to Rube Goldberg. His creations, which he calls "unuseless," include a roll of toilet paper attached to the head for easy reach in hay fever season, and tiny mops for a cat's feet that polish the floor as the cat prowls.

[NYT]

TED : Kenichi Ebina

Green Collar jobs

Tom Friedman @ NYT
"Remember, adds Mr. Jones, "a big chunk of the African-American community is economically stranded. The blue-collar, stepping-stone, manufacturing jobs are leaving. And they're not being replaced by anything. So you have this whole generation of young blacks who are basically in economic free fall." Green-collar retrofitting jobs are a great way to catch them."


[Majora Carter]

Rajan: "The other striking point is the concept of blue-collar jobs as a stepping stone to upwards social mobility. Outsourcing of blue collar jobs can have an heave impact on the poorest sections of society.  The state has to enable them to get education more easily. Thats a really tough problem to solve for the elected representatives."

What is it that keeps these people going ?

Condolences to the families and friends of the innocent who lost their lives in the blast.
Her life is truly under threat. I also am not inclined to believe that she is brimming with desire to serve the nation.
She must have known that her enemies has this planned.
What kind of incentive can motivate her to take this risk. Its not as if she is poor, so can it really be the desire to make more money ?
Is it some form of addiction to power ?
I can somehow think of no easy explanation.

Swear at work

"Employees use swearing on a continuous basis, but not necessarily in a negative, abusive manner. Swearing was as a social phenomenon to reflect solidarity and enhance group cohesiveness, or as a psychological phenomenon to release stress, " the study stated.  "Most of the cases were reported by employees at the lower levels of the organizational hierarchies and it was clear that executives use swearing language less frequently. "

http://slashdot.org/articles/07/10/17/1428230.shtml
http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/20718

uPhone

I was at this short course in Santa Clara yesterday. As the speakers recitation of some long boring equation describing an active filter, I heard the track of "Sex and the City". Someone's phone went off. That person decided he had to take the call. For this he had to hit answer and run to the door because he couldnt start talking in the middle of the lecture. This has happened to most of us at least 9,435,678 times.

But, do you think it would be difficult for the phone companies to provide a button which will pick up the call and put the caller on hold and explain to them that the call will be answered in the next few secs. Wouldnt this be a USP they could market. They already have the hold feature in all phones.

:)

Movie: City of God

Favelas and the violence in there. The guns just make it 10 times worse than the gang wars in Bombay.

Rose tinted spectacles

I am beginning to feel part of a minority that does not view this world through a more idealistic pair of lenses. When I was a kid I thought it was just the adults around me. I thought mistrust of other humans was a function of poor financial conditions where wrongly placed trust could cause your kids their education or food. In a  slightly more financially well-off society I still see this phenomenon. It is to be noted that even in the case of poor the skepticism does not stop at matters financial although thats what theyr lives mostly revolve around.
In our relatively affluent society, shouldn't we at least look at problems in the first glance with an ideal model in mind. I find people assume worse things about intentions of other people. Is this skepticism inherited from our parents generation ? Is this skepticism needed for survival in this jungle of human society ?



I for some reason feel like a winner with an ideal-world view. The reason being that it makes me feel good about the world. I admire the attitude that people like Shashi Tharoor have (or atleast display) when he talks about the role of the UN, even though he realizes that practically he cannot still help the Burmese. I see Amartya Sen trying to explain problems or solutions within a similar frame of reference. I am not saying that the world is a happy place today. I am very well aware of the demons disguised as humans that roam the hallways of the political capitals, or the corporate board-rooms. I am also aware of the base devils in human form, who rape, plunder and scar our future generations.  What I am talking about is the average Joe and Jane. They might try to cut corners in a competitive atmosphere, but to believe that Jane is always plotting against you is harmful to both you and the environment that you and Jane work in.

I think its just a meme that few have spread (successfully I might add) that is causing us to distrust each other more than our actions merit. I somehow still believe in the fact that humans in civil settings cause each other more harm because they are scared of each other.  Scared of the unknown. If you act selflessly and in a way as to win the other person's trust, they will act in a more friendly manner towards you too. If we always think of an evil game that the 'other' person is going to play, then they too can sense your attitude and will be drawn into playing the game by the very same rules.

So in conclusion I think its not wise to wear our rose-tinted spectacles outside home. But its also important to take off our thorn-lined glasses when we are outside home. Take a chace, trust thy neighbor !!

Sofia Boutella

Pretty and good huh ?

Robots as life partners

Could this be ?

[ msnbc reports ]
Levy argues that psychologists have identified roughly a dozen basic reasons why people fall in love, "and almost all of them could apply to human-robot relationships. For instance, one thing that prompts people to fall in love are similarities in personality and knowledge, and all of this is programmable. Another reason people are more likely to fall in love is if they know the other person likes them, and that's programmable too."

In 2006, Henrik Christensen, founder of the European Robotics Research Network, predicted that people will be having sex with robots within five years, and Levy thinks that's quite likely. There are companies that already sell realistic sex dolls, "and it's just a matter of adding some electronics to them to add some vibration," he said, or endowing the robots with a few audio responses. "That's fairly primitive in terms of robotics, but the technology is already there."

[via /. ]

My Brain running wild

If this became very common wouldn't you rather have this machine as a partner and not go through all the pains that you need to go through to make a relationship work. What if it is the pain that makes the relationship that much more special.  Well then we could always go back. Its not as if these robots can take us over. So the software running on them has to clearly be some form of AI thing. So each of these machines will develop their own character. We could have small boxes like iPods called the "iSoul" which would carry the entire personality of the wife robot. We would have to buy new bodies for these Souls every new Year or so. You could take your wife's iSoul and plug it in your car. Maybe not, that sounds a bit too weird. The wireless technologies should be strong enough to access my iSoul which is docked from anywhere in the globe. So then I dont have to baby-sit and control all that iSoul does.

Hell if someone hacks into my iSoul ?? But whats the fun if I completely control the experiences that iSoul is exposed to. Maybe iSould should be able to connect to something like 2ndLifee and enrich her own experiences.

You think school kids would date each others iSouls then ? Would parents gift their kids an iSoul on their 15th birthday because the kid cant find a single decent date ?

Cognitive Dissonance

Cognitive dissonance -
When you realize that one of your cognitions is dissonant with another cognition.
Example: File wrong taxes, justified by saying we paid more last year, or govt sucks anyways.
Problem : We don't learn because the dissonance is resolved by flase justifications.
Solution : Increased awareness. Surround myself with people who dont agree with me. Listen to criticism.
Since I am reading Macbeth today, I quote Shakespeare " Give everyman thy ear, but few thy voice. Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgement".



Listen to Elliot Aronson interview on Talk of the Nation

"The engine that drives self-justification, the energy that produces the need to justify our actions and decisions — especially the wrong ones — is an unpleasant feeling that Festinger called "cognitive dissonance." Cognitive dissonance is a state of tension that occurs whenever a person holds two cognitions (ideas, attitudes, beliefs, opinions) that are psychologically inconsistent, such as "Smoking is a dumb thing to do because it could kill me" and "I smoke two packs a day." Dissonance produces mental discomfort, ranging from minor pangs to deep anguish; people don't rest easy until they find a way to reduce it. In this example, the most direct way for a smoker to reduce dissonance is by quitting. But if she has tried to quit and failed, now she must reduce dissonance by convincing herself that smoking isn't really so harmful, or that smoking is worth the risk because it helps her relax or prevents her from gaining weight (and after all, obesity is a health risk, too), and so on. Most smokers manage to reduce dissonance in many such ingenious, if self-deluding, ways."

Craig Venter: Building synthetic chromosome

Craig Venter, the controversial DNA researcher involved in the race to decipher the human genetic code, has built a synthetic chromosome out of laboratory chemicals and is poised to announce the creation of the first new artificial life form on Earth.



The team of scientists has already successfully transplanted the genome of one type of bacterium into the cell of another, effectively changing the cell's species. Mr Venter said he was "100% confident" the same technique would work for the artificially created chromosome.

The new life form will depend for its ability to replicate itself and metabolise on the molecular machinery of the cell into which it has been injected, and in that sense it will not be a wholly synthetic life form. However, its DNA will be artificial, and it is the DNA that controls the cell and is credited with being the building block of life. [ ..Guardian article]

[via monkeyfilter]

Debating with believers

So the general argument they have is, if science can't prove the paranormal phenomenon that does not mean our explanation (which has no sound basis) is wrong.
The point they seem to be missing is that, no one can just make a claim without trying to explain or prove it. The onus is on the person making the claim to prove that this happens, by any method that you choose. You can't say I am right until you prove me to be wrong.

Can we fall below this ?

While rape has always been a weapon of war, researchers say they fear that Congo's problem has metastasized into a wider social phenomenon.

"It's gone beyond the conflict," said Alexandra Bilak, who has studied various armed groups around Bukavu, on the shores of Lake Kivu. She said that the number of women abused and even killed by their husbands seemed to be going up and that brutality toward women had become "almost normal."